Mid-Week Poll: ‘Star Trek’ Retailer Exclusive Blu-rays

If you’ve read my recent Blu-ray review (or any of the other discussion of the topic on the web), you should know by now that Paramount has made the frustrating and consumer-unfriendly decision to divide up the bonus features for the Blu-ray release of ‘Star Trek into Darkness‘ among multiple retailer exclusives. Many fans have (justifiably) expressed outrage at this move. Others are apathetic about it. Where do you stand? Which edition of the movie will you buy, if any at all?

I did my best in my Blu-ray review to detail which retailers are getting which exclusives. Some (Amazon, Walmart and Future Shop) simply have unique packaging. Others (Best Buy and Target) contain exclusive featurettes that you can’t get anywhere else (and are different from each others’).

As a reviewer, I’m in a different position than those of you who have to go out and buy the disc. I already received a screener of the standard 3D edition from the studio. Based on how poor the supplements on that copy are (nothing but superficial promotional fluff), I expect the retailer exclusive featurettes to be more of the same. Personally, I would not go out of my way to collect them. If the content turned out to be more compelling, I might have to reconsider.

On the other hand, as a metal case collector, I’ve asked a friend of mine in Canada to pick up the Future Shop SteelBook (which is nicer than the Walmart version, in my opinion) for me. I can certainly understand why a completist collector might want to buy every copy of the movie available, even if the content isn’t so great.

I can also understand why someone might find the principle of this issue so galling that they’d want to boycott the movie entirely.

What’s your plan for this? Which copies (if any) will you buy? You may vote for multiple options in the poll if you need to.

Which 'Star Trek into Darkness' Blu-rays Will You Buy?

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16 comments

  1. William Henley

    Just the standard 3D edition for me. While I would love to have all the bonus features, I am not going to buy multiple copies of the movie just to get it.

    Josh’s review made it sound like there is BD-Live on the disc. Maybe Paramount will see the lite and eventually release all the bonus features in streaming format through BD-Live. I doubt it, but here’s hoping.

  2. Standard 3D edition for me as well (although it’s probably a shock to many that I’m getting ANY version).

    I know the Target set only has 30 minutes of bonus materials, and it looks like “fluff” stuff, so I’m not going to feel too left out.

    The fact that all releases don’t contain a commentary track and I have to watch the iTunes version to hear one is the most annoying bit of this release…but at least the code comes with all versions.

  3. Lord Bowler

    I chose the Walmart with the ship over the Amazon Phaser.

    I may pick up the Target release also, or may wait for the inevitable double-dip release (probably when Star Trek 3: The Search for Kirk opens).

  4. Bryan

    I’ll get the Target exclusive only if the rumor about the German 3D release having shifting ARs to accommodate the IMAX footage turns out to be false. (It has all the extras on the Target exclusive as well.)

  5. Random Commenter

    On TrekCore, they have detailed all the exclusive features if you want to see whether they are worth the extra expense or not. Also, the Best Buy exclusive stuff is actually free for everyone on CinemaNow, so you can watch it without getting the Best Buy version.

  6. I chose “other” – at the moment. If you said I must decide TODAY then the answer would be to Boycott based on principle. I am leaning towards the Future Shop release. Paramount’s anti-Blu Ray releases (or the lack of) speak for themselves with lack of or crappy extras to begin with. Paramount time and time again shoots themselves in the foot and then passes the blame on as anything but self-inflicted.
    I am waiting to see what other (Import) options will bring. Be it UK, Germany, whatever.
    I am not a huge fan of the whole JJ Abrams reboot so I have plenty of time to decide.

  7. EM

    I haven’t even been interested in seeing the film (though I might get around to it someday). If I were interested in buying it, I’m sure I would be quite irritated by the hodgepodge of offerings.

  8. Timcharger

    For the right price. Isn’t that always the best answer?

    (Prices are still in flux)
    $50 more for Amazon’s phaser = no
    $5 more for Target’s exclusive = maybe
    $10 more (factoring a buddy shipping it) for Future shop’s steel = maybe
    $20 more for Walmart’s ship & steelbook = maybe
    $0 more for Best Buy’s exlusives = yes

    —–

    There are rumors that Walmart will drop their price and only as for $10 more their exclusive ship & steelbook. If so, that’s the buy.

  9. Dustin

    Does the Walmart edition with the ship have the 3D version? Doesn’t say on their web site. If so I’m thinking that’s the one.

    • Although it sucks that paramount is pimping out (or whoring itself) to every retailer for exclusives, at least the prices seem fairly reasonable. It’s nowhere near as slippery and greedy as to what Disney did with Oz the Great and Powerful. Being a 3D junky myself, that really got to me.

  10. Kevin

    I’ve got the Steelbook on the way from Amazon UK. It appears to be the same as Walmart’s offering, just without the toy ship.

    Was going to get the Target version, too, but have decided to just say “screw it” with the various “retailer exclusive” bonus features. If they can’t make them part of the standard release, then they’re obviously not important enough for me to go out of my way (let alone spend another $20+ per copy of the film) to get them. Still pissed about the commentary situation, though.

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